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Syrian children are helped by rescuers are they are evacuated with their mother (unseen) from a bombed building where their father was killed after a reported an air strike by pro-Syrian government forces in Aleppo on March 23, 2014. AFP PHOTO/BARAA AL-HALABI (Photo credit should read BARAA AL-HALABI/AFP/Getty Images)

Syrian children are helped by rescuers are they are evacuated with their mother (unseen) from a bombed building where their father was killed after a reported an air strike by pro-Syrian government forces in Aleppo on March 23, 2014. (credit: BARAA AL-HALABI/AFP/Getty Images)

WASHINGTON (CBSDC/AP) — A Turkish television station caught live the moment a Syrian jet fighter was shot down by Turkish forces after violating airspace.

A television reporter was doing a live shot near the border when artillery fire is heard in the background and then a plume of smoke rising from where the plane crashed.

“A Syrian plane violated our airspace,” Erdogan said, according to Reuters. “Our F-16s took off and hit this plane. Why? Because if you violate my airspace, our slap after this will be hard.”

Syria claims that the fighter jet was targeting rebel fighters along the border and called the act a “blatant aggression.”

The pilot ejected before the plane crashed in Syrian territory.

Reuters reports that Turkey warned the jet four times that it was nearing its airspace.

According to The Associated Press, Islamic rebels seized the Syrian town of Kassab, which is located near the Turkish border. The fight for the town, which is loyal to Syrian President Bashar Assad, began Friday.

Last week the Obama administration closed the Syrian embassy in Washington, D.C., and its honorary consulates in Troy, Mich., and Houston, Texas.